Jazz Ambassadors by Ron Kaplan

Singer Ron Kaplan recruited some of the finest West Coast Jazz Musicians in the Monterey Bay to record and accompany him on tour in 2004 for the Jazz Ambassadors program through the Department of State and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC. The focus of the program in 2004 is Vocal Jazz.

All three members of the rhythm section are both professional musicians and educators who have performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the second longest running festival in the United States now in its 46th year and have played with some of the biggest names in Jazz including Dizzy Gillespie Ray Brown and Ray Charles.

What we have here is a pairing of "young lions" on fire with a couple of seasoned veterans all of whom have a burning passion to carry the torch as Ambassadors of the American Songbook and traditional Jazz Standards. They are Eddie Mendenhall on Piano Dan Robbins on Bass Steve Robertson on Drums and Ron Kaplan on Vocals.

The melding of the talents of these four individuals is immediately evident on this recording and is an auspicious beinning for this configuration of fine musicians with a common desire to explore the inside and outside of every progression as the original lyrics penned by Ron Kaplan for the Oliver Nelson classic composition Stolen Moments included on the CD indicate.